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Monday, 5 March 2018

Our experience of ‘Trying for a Baby’

With people announcing pregnancies left right and centre, and babies being born all around us, I thought it would be nice to reminisce on our experience of trying for a baby. Of course, Millie wasn’t planned - but Mylo was and it was a completely different experience of actively trying to conceive and get pregnant. There are so many tips to help you conceive too but I’m not sure all of them work for everyone.

We have so many friends who have had difficulties with conception and trying for a baby isn’t actually as easy as it sounds! We know people who have been trying for years to conceive, we know people who have battled with miscarriage after miscarriage, we know people who have taken on IVF, we also know people who accepted that maybe having children wasn’t going to be something they would be able to achieve and we also know same sex couples who have looked into sperm donation to conceive! However, there is always a solution and there’s always a miracle waiting to happen and for lots of people, that’s exactly what happens and a miracle arrives in the form of a beautiful baby. But just what are the options for those who struggle? Well, there is, as mentioned, IVF, surrogacy and adoption but there’s lots of questions that come with those forms of conception too - Just how expensive will IVF be? How much does it cost to go to a sperm bank? Will I be able to have children after a miscarriage? If you’re looking at any of these options, it’s good to know all of the ins and outs and knowing what is available can really help ease the situation. Read more about all of the different options here.

Luckily for us, we had no problems when it came to trying for a baby, we had discussed when the best time would be for us to have another and we agreed that we’d like Millie to be in school so that I could have some 1 on 1 time with the baby once he arrived. It also meant that Millie was old enough to know what was going on which has made a huge difference now that Mylo is here. So, we actively started trying in August 2016, I had come off the pill in June to make sure that my periods were regular and that I could track ovulation etc if needed. We had figured it would take us a good couple of months to actually get pregnant and so set to it but not having our hearts set on getting the deed done right away. Realistically, I wanted to have a summer baby, around July/August time meaning that Millie would be off school and wouldn’t be effected by the sleepless nights and then she would return to school in September and I’d have nearly a full year off work... However, it didn’t quite work like that.

To our surprise, towards the end of August/Start of September, I was showing signs of pregnancy - sore boobs, nausea and just a constant bloated feeling. I brushed it off for a week or so and then my boobs just became so painful that I knew I had to take a test. I wasn’t really expecting anything and so I did a test - actually filming it to show Adam and some close friends and to my absolute delight, it came back positive. After just 4 weeks of trying, we fell pregnant and I just couldn’t believe it!

10 months down the line, we have a beautiful baby boy and a very loving big sister! We are so grateful that it happened so quickly for us as like I said, we know so many people that struggle to conceive or have had to look into donors or adoption and so along with this, we know that we have to take contraception after having children very seriously because we’re super compatible and I don’t think we could handle baby number 3....